Defender's Quest: Kingdom of the Valley
by Minaly22
Summary: After their adventure in the pit, Azra and her friends settle down for the new life they have fought for. But why is Azra's life in danger? And what connection does that have to the powers of Eztli-tenoch that reawakened in her? Will the pit become the only place she will be safe in?


A/N and Disclaimer: Well, I found a lot of contradictions and mistakes and decided to update it, adding this along the way.

The original game is "Defender's Quest: Valley of the Forgotten", and all I own is the purchasable version of the game, I did not create it.

There are a lot of reference towards the game in this chapter. Whoever that played the game should be able to pick them out. The story is yet unclear but it is necessary as we are building towards it from the beginning; so please bear with me.

* * *

_**Defender's Quest: The Kingdom in the Valley**_

**My name is Azra**

**I am dying**

**Time doesn't wait**

**There's not even time for anyone to come to my rescue.**

**As I lay there, inside the city**

**The shadows of strangers and creeping darkness were the last thing I saw.**

...

Everything was quiet.

How strange. To hear the screaming of voices, stomping of feet's, frantic gallops from the horses; only to find absolute silence filling your ears.

I couldn't feel the warmth of my body escaping me as a mind dulling pain somewhere around my abdomen took my breath away; the last sensation I remember; I opened my eyes again.

I found myself at a dark place, completely void of any light. I raised my hands to where I believed my face is and I can see them clearly, as they are glowing with a bright golden light. Glancing downwards at myself, I found the other parts of my body glowing as well. I tried to locate the injury I have taken. With my roaming hands, I touched my abdomen. But I didn't feel anything as my eyes widen in horror. My hands just went through my own body. I let out a short gasp of surprise.

But no sound came out. Maybe it's because I lost my ears and sense of hearing? I can't confirm if I have any ears since I can't see them, nor can I try to touch them anymore, my hands can go through my abdomen after all. So I decided to tap my toes on the ground, only to find that there isn't any ground below me.

So I am floating in an unknown, weird, dark and eerily silent space while I glow with a strange golden light. Ok, that self-clarification totally didn't ease my panicked mind. I rolled my eyes to particularly no one. Ketta would have been so proud of my sarcasm right now, but alas she isn't here.

Deciding that thinking further on where I am and what this place is would not benefit me, I tried to think over what had happened before I winded up being here.

***Flash back start***

_I worked in the library all day long, making my way through the documents, organizing books, cleaning the shelves, recording another page in my journal before dusk came and I left the library, heading towards my home. An ordinary day, just what I wished for. But when I stepped outside the library, I suddenly remembered that Markos wanted to tell me something today and will meet me in the library. He said it was very important._

_Turning around, I lifted the key to the heavy wooden door of the library again before screams and shouts erupted behind me. _

"_Stop that man!" I recognized the voice as one of the friendlier guards on patrol that always greets me when I walk the streets. Frantic stomping of numerous boots was what I heard next. I whipped my head around, seeing a cloaked figure dashing towards me. Not taking any chances, I speared my key into the key hole. Or at least, where I thought the key hole was. The key bounced off my fingers and landed on the ground. My head still facing the stranger running towards me, I decided to abandon my key, and ran around the walls of the library, heading towards the western exit. _

_With agility that surprised me, the stranger flicked through the distance and came out from the western exit just as I left it. The cloaked figure reached out a gloved hand, successfully took a hold of my yellow cloak whizzing behind me, and yanked._

_Losing my balance, I tumbled face first to the ground, out of breathe, trying to lift myself from the ground. I am just a librarian after all, and even a short flight takes a lot from me with the adrenaline coursing through my veins. The stranger did not waste any time for me to regain my bearings, and jumped onto me, tackling me to the ground as I reconciled with mother Earth for the second time of the day. I tried to twist myself out of the heavy weight squashing me to the ground, but only ended up facing the cloaked figure instead. I heard the neighing of a horse somewhere from behind, and the growing rhythmic pounding from the horse. _

_The stranger lifted his gloved right hand, a dagger in its grasp, about to plunge downwards. I squirmed and kicked, doubling my effort, with the same result. I managed to land a few good whacks on him even though it didn't stop him, but due to my squirming, he missed my heart and hit my abdomen. I let out a pained scream as the dagger was buried inside me to the handle, and blacked out._

***Flash back end***

Now thinking about it, I shivered from fear as I relived the memory.

So have I died? Is this the end of Azra Yalkie Livbar? Is this '**the other side**'?

I remember seeing a short dream where Zelemir and Eztli-tenoch were in a pitch black space the night I went to sleep after we escaped the pit. So is this truly '**the other side**'? Where Eztli-tenoch was eliminated, where Zelemir, whose life was maintained through Eztli-tenoch's powers, dispersed into nothingness?

But if Eztli-tenoch turned into dust and Zelemir vanished into nothingness, why do I still have a 'form', and why am I glowing with this golden light?

And why did the cloaked person kill me? What was the reason for him to plunge a dagger into my heart, only to miss and end up in the abdomen? Why was there only one guard when the patrols were always done in pairs? What were they trying to achieve by killing me?

Countless questions formed inside my mind, one more confusing than the other. And despite the fact there is no ground beneath me, I still somehow managed to pace in this dark place. Walk a few steps forwards, turn around, and walk another step back.

I stayed that way for what I felt to be a very long time, but it was then I heard distant voices. Unrecognizable but still speaking the wide known common language we use today. The voices have an echoic quality in them, making the words hard to pick out and understand. The tones, from what I could deduce, are neutral, without much emotion. Spinning my head around, I tried to find the source of the sounds that feels vaguely familiar to me.

"Who's there?" I shouted, this time clearly hearing my own voice despite the stunning silence I experienced before. The voices receded and became inaudible but harsh whispers. I stood there, continuously spinning my heard around despite my own dizziness, desperately trying to find the source. These voices somehow opened the dam of fear within me, and I panicked even further.

"Show yourselves!" I shouted towards the ever-stretching blackness again. This time, the discussion the voices had were abruptly ended as two figures glowing in gold, like I am, started to manifest in my sight.

To my right, the blonde haired mysterious women with the ornate black robe, golden rings circling her arms, red tattoos on her face and the back of her hands me and my friend occasionally encountered has appeared. She was the one who shared the ability to enter the half-way world with Zelemir and me. And was also the one who begged Eztli-tenoch to end her existence. Her face bore a very mixed expression, one of hesitance, sadness, shame and guilt. I stared at her for a few moments before another figure to my left has caught my eyes. What I saw shocked me.

It was Zelemir.

The scar on his blinded gray left eye, with the slight hollow in his cheeks from his high cheekbones, and the trade mark red robe. It had to be Zelemir.

The difference being, he is not bald, and the old wizened look disappeared. He looked so much younger, and handsome. He has long black hair framing his face with a goatee on his chin without any trace of gray or white. Now as I stared, mouth agape at this younger-version of Zelemir, it reminded me of Markos. They look very similar, taking away the difference of their eyes, one being two healthy sapphire blue orbs that remind me of the sky, while Zelemir's being deep emerald orb of the forests with the other one blind, and the difference in their hair. I knew that Zelemir being the crowned prince, and Markos from one of the branches of the royal family, must be related somehow. But the resemblance is pretty spooky. Well, I bet no one else could compare the looks of a dead man and a young living one side by side. Are the other males in the royal families similar like this too?

"Azra,"

_And gods above, they sound extremely similar too!_ As my mind registered this comment, I saw the lips of Salea at my right twitch in amusement.

_Oh right, she was one of the gods before, so I bet she heard that._ As I thought of that, Salea rolled her eyes, giving me the "Duh." Look that Ketta loves giving to other people.

"Azra."

Zelemir called my name again, but this time slightly firmer, trying to catch my wandering attention. Deciding that I need to focus, I turned my gaze back towards Zelemir.

"There are matters we must discuss."

I flicked my gaze towards Salea for a moment. She nodded to me as our eyes met briefly.

"Eztli-tenoch. Although he isn't coming back, he has left quite the impact on our lives and others,"

I nodded, urging him to continue.

"We have eliminated him, but as he did. With the last of his power he has cursed you and me." Zelemir spoke with indifference, how he managed to do that while delivering grim news is absolutely beyond me.

"Cu…Curse?" I stammered, unable to contain the shock and surprise within myself.

"Yes." It was Salea who responded to my question. I faced her, trying to read her stone like expression.

"Eztli…" Salea began, but shook her head.

"Sar… has granted powers to you both. You cannot reincarnate into the world, and must live as him and I have lived,as gods." Her gaze shifted downwards, as if in shame.

My eyes widened in shock, and whipped my head towards Zelemir to confirm the truth in her word. He nodded slowly.

"I have died a long time ago, when I unearthed Eztli-tenoch, where I sacrificed my life. Now I look like how I was

when I died."

Hang on, does this mean…?

"Then does this mean… I died? I'm dead?"

Both of them nodded. Zelemir with his eyes closed and Salea's gaze still casted downwards.

"I begged Sar to erase my existence. But it seems he only erased my '_life_' but not my '_soul_'. That is why I am still here when I am supposed to be '_non-existent_'."

So there is no doubt now.

We are at '**the other side**'.

* * *

"AZRA!"

Tearing through the crowd as fast as he could, not caring if he stepped on someone's foot or sending them crashing away. When he heard from the guards that there was a commotion and a woman has died down at the northern, most inner region of the capitol, near the library. He lost himself and ran as quickly as possible, his friends and brothers in arms following behind him albeit not as hurried as he is.

Markos briefly sent a prayer to whatever god that is willing to listen to him.

* * *

Salea seemed to wince, as if she heard someone tell her something she didn't want to hear.

_Oh, now she is staring at me with the annoyed look again. I guess my guess was pretty accurate._

"Yes Azra, your guess was way too accurate. What do you think would happen when your dear _friend _Markos found you lying in a pool of your own blood, dead in the streets? Do you consider that to be something you want to hear?"

The back of my mind had registered that Salea gave extra emphasis to the word _friend_ but I heed no mind. All I was thinking now was the most panicked look I could imagine plastered on Markos's face when he is going to find my body in such a state, in the streets, close to the library. He will certainly blame himself for asking me to stay at the library as everything happened there, believing because he wanted to tell me something important that ended up being my location of demise.

Salea threw me another dirty look again. _Guess I hit the bull's eye for the second time. Who knew; a librarian that has never lifted a bow in her life! If Ketta was here she must certainly be bursting with pride from my Sarcasm and Markswomen-ship._

"Azra, listen to me now, you must send yourself back to the living world, right into your body before he gets there and think's you are dead." Zelemir cuts my thoughts short, only to bring up a new string of them.

"Wait, but I thought I AM dead?" I questioned him.

"You are, but do you remember the revenants? They were normal people with normal bodies and souls. By killing their body with the plague, I separated their souls, twisted and reshaped them into the monsters you faced, stuff them back into their body and letting the soul reform that body, controlling the plague in them to mutate and change to whatever I deem fit. Because the plague within the souls have the ability to shape their bodies, it is impossible to kill them physically since they could reshape it back to functionality as many times as they need. But because only we have the ability to modify the souls, they cannot modify themselves back to existence. You killed them in the half-way world, where you and your companions destroyed both body and soul at once -"

"- So by using our powers, we can send your soul back into your body, without modifying it, and let your soul heal your body back to health. Of course, you can also do it yourself as you share the same powers we do." Salea interrupted Zelemir before he was going to end up giving us his lecture of '_How to create a revenant_'.

Zelemir's right eye brow twitched slightly as if in annoyance, but otherwise didn't betray any other emotions. He opened his mouth again to speak.

"Our souls are cursed to be either forever-existing and not moving on, or forever-non-existing. It didn't say anything about returning to life with the use of our own abilities. But so far, I have tried to stuff the soul from one person into another one's body, where bodies and souls of both different individual ceased to exist. Seeing that out of the three of us, only you have a still existing body, you will be the only one able to walk the planes of the living again."

Silence commenced for a few moments as I absorbed the information given to me before I spoke.

"But that doesn't make sense! Before I came here, the powers I acquired in the pit did not leave the pit with me. How do I still have it?" _I have been asking awful lot of questions today._ I bet Salea is being… Oh, she is shooting me 'the look' again. Better not continue on that road.

"Because deep in your soul, you resented that power, and sealed it away. It's still there though. So you restricted that power where it will not manifest when you walk the planes of the living, but didn't add a restriction in the land of the dead." Zelemir answered me. This however sparked more questions again.

"Then why didn't you seal that power away in you after the plague?" _Why did you still kill so many innocents when you could have stopped yourself from doing that?_ That was the unvoiced question, but I bet even Slak who loved death and destruction but not really intelligent could catch on the hidden meaning there. The notes of agitation in my voice has been every increasing since my first onslaught of questions, this one especially so.

Zelemir casts a downward glance to avert his eyes from mine,

"Because Eztli-tenoch, who bestowed the power on me, in essence, controls that power through me. I cannot control something that isn't mine to control. As he died, his control over that power went with him, but deciding to keep the powers within us, the powers merged with their new hosts. With the combined power of yours and mine, you sent my soul and body in here. In the land of the dead, what is living cannot exist. My body, which was labeled to be dead as it entered this realm, was absorbed into the land of the dead and became one of it. Salea managed to whisk my soul away before it perished along my body. So now, we are the masters of our own powers, and can desire anything of it, except self-destruction."

I gave Zelemir a confused look, what does he mean '_except self-destruction?_' Salea threw 'the look' at me for the up tenth time.

"Besides, your will was much stronger than mine, Azra. You defeated me and my infinite army of revenants with only yourself, and 6 friends while none of you were injured. I doubt you actually needed my help when we fought Eztli-tenoch. You had everything under control and all you needed was time to build your power and overwhelm him." Zelemir said with a somber expression.

Although I heard him, I didn't pay much attention to what he was saying. I was looking at Salea, with something at the back of my mind nagging at me senses. Eztli-tenoch, Salea... Eztli-tenoch and Salea...

_OH!_

"So that's why you begged Sar to erase your existence, because you cannot do it yourself. Only someone else can wish for your destruction." I widened my eyes as realization of Salea's action dawned on me.

Salea nodded sadly. "But he only erased the existence of my life; my soul will live on forever, unless one of you decides against it. But it is not time for me to escape guilt and shame by perishing myself, I must face them head on as I teach you both how to wield the powers correctly. I must watch over you two, to prevent the mistakes Sar and I have made." She paused briefly, a note of tremendous guilt and sadness added to her voice. "I always wished we could have done things differently, I will be fulfilling this wish through the both of you. And I want to express my gratitude for you two to end the mistakes we have sowed, also apologize to thrust you two into this accursed 'godhood'." Salea spat the last world with much hate.

Zelemir and I nodded solemnly as Salea bowed to us. Indeed, Zelemir and I have every reason to feel offended, but somehow I doubt any of us feel that way. To be honest, I feel a lot of pity towards her, she was just like me, somehow being trusted with godly powers, and didn't know what to do with it.

Before she completely straightened herself from the bow, before she would avert her eyes from us again, I rushed forwards with my arms outstretched attempting to hug her.

Taking hints from Zelemir's lecture to understand the basic principles of this world and our powers now, I willed myself to touch her and to my satisfaction, ended up touching Salea without any of our body parts going through each other. Salea stood there stiffly for a few awkward moments. Just as I thought she wouldn't want my compassion and I should pull back before I made her any more uncomfortable, she hugged me back, tightly.

Zelemir, seeing us like this, walked towards us silently, and placed a hand on Salea's shoulder. Both of our gazes turned towards him, his lone eye also reflecting the pain all three of us shared through the torment in the pit.

I think I saw forgiveness in his deep emerald orb. '_Forgiveness to what?_' I didn't really understand. But as Salea looked at him for one moment longer, she began to hiccup and broke into tears.

It was as Salea's sobbing began did I understand the message in his eye.

'_I have forgiven Sar, and I forgive you here and now. Even if you have caused immeasurable pain to me and made mistakes that drove me to resent you both. '_

No wonder Salea would be like this, Zelemir's experience was a hard thing to go through and even harder thing to be forgiven. I feel tears streaming from my eyes as well when I thought back to every horror I have seen inside the pit as Salea continued to hug me. I didn't think of forgiveness when I first hugged her. I simply did what I believe was right at the moment.

But, now that I ask myself if I would forgive her if I was in Zelemir's shoes…

_Yes, I forgive you both too._

I didn't know it was possible, but Salea cried even harder. She began to scream and bawl her eyes out, startling me slightly and hugged me tighter at the same time.

Oh, she must have heard that.

_Oops? _

Well, now when I thought about being in Zelemir's shoes, it reminded me of Slak. He kept looking for new shoes, but never managed to find anything worthwhile. Being reminded of Slak and his antics brought a slight chuckle to me. I might never forget what he had done when he took hold of the map and pointed us the exit.

_"As I was saying, before I was so rudely interrupted. It's a map of the pit, complete with..._

_... Dramatic Pause..._

_AN EXIT!"_

Salea, who obviously know what I was thinking, also chuckled between hiccups at my memory.

But she still kept on crying.

All those millenniums worth of sorrow and guilt piled within her, it must feel awful. "Shh… It's alright now. Let it all out." I feel silly trying to comfort her as if she is a crying child, but again, I just acted on impulse. I directed her head to rest of my shoulder.

* * *

It was a really long time before Salea stopped crying. The issue of Markos and my dead body on the street didn't escape me, but I heard Zelemir whisper in my mind when that crossed my mind.

'_We can stop time. I did just that. There is no time in the land of the dead; we have all the time in the world here as long as we stop the flow of time in the real world.' _

Although it shouldn't be possible, but I heard the tone of assurance in his voice.

How am I hearing that tone of assurance when I didn't 'hear' what he was saying?

_No, Azra, don't. Stop thinking about these contradictions. _I silently berated myself.

Well, that has been surprisingly conveniently taken care of. So we continued to comfort Salea with, literally, all the time in the world.

Now that I think about it. In the long run, we wouldn't really want to wish each other's existence to be nullified. One will be left alone no matter what we do. And they will live an eternal existence, with no one by their side. The loneliness will eat us away, and we would most likely become something akin to Eztli-tenoch, with no one to try and stop us from doing those same mistakes he did. Or end up like Salea here, filled with endless guilt and torment, with no one to take comfort from.

The magnitude of Salea's sorrow triggered something inside me as I filtered through the memories I possessed in my short twenty-four years of life. The memories of the plague that swallowed up the whole world and lasted for ten long years until the fateful day of my arrival within the pit, another kind of war that had begun as the revenants attacked living humans of any kind…

The plague has truly killed hundreds and thousands of people. It was triggered as Zelemir made a pact with Eztli-tenoch. Salea did not wish to rule from the heavens like Eztli-tenoch did, with a merciless iron grip and cold in-difference towards life so she left, not being present when the deal was struck. In short, Salea finds herself responsible for everything that has happened. The plague, the war, Eztli-tenoch's demise, and the lives that have been destroyed through what she believe as her own incompetence. She must be thinking about me and Zelemir's life when she thought of that part.

My father, although being the librarian, was drafted into the army and sent away on my 15th birthday as I was left alone to tend to the library.

Oh, He never came back.

So apparently, at that point, the war has already ended. And the soldiers were sent out to defend us from the revenants created to destroy the Quaid nation made out of bodies of Quaid people. In essence they are still defending us from the Quaid, so the war didn't really end.

Lives were made a lot harder with the plague going on too. Eztli-tenoch has really messed up everything.

I decided to think no further on the subject, knowing Salea is most likely reading my mind; it will simply become an unwanted reminder for both of us right now.

As Salea began to calm down, I held her for another short period of time before she released me. I took the queue and released her as well. She was silent as she looked at both me and Zelemir. From the look she had on her face, she is having another internal struggle that most likely involves in what to say to us now that we showed we somehow cared. Should she say 'Thank you' when she isn't the kind of person to say that? She doesn't look like she wants to disregard our effort on showing some compassion to ease her pain; so I doubt she would say something sounding ungrateful.

"You're welcome." I couldn't stop myself from blurting that out.

To make matters worse, the tone was laced in heavy sarcasm that I didn't intend to add. Ketta has rubbed off way too much on me to be able to affect me to this extent, even I felt agitated by that sometimes. I just hope Salea is still reading my mind to understand I didn't do this on purpose.

She snorted briefly. And I let out a sigh of relief.

"So how do I exactly go back to '_being alive_'?" I raised my hand and had my fingers hold my chin, while my other held itself up at my hip, trade-mark thoughtful expression all over my face. Apparently the three of us are now the past presidents of the being alive club now.

"It's not hard and not quite complicated, but the current circumstances have made things unpleasantly inconvenient. As I mentioned before, I just have to send your soul back to your body while you heal yourself up. I trust I don't have to instruct you on how to heal yourself?" Zelemir answered nonchalantly, throwing me a questioning look.

"I understand how to heal my comrades inside the half-way world when we were in the pit. But I never managed to heal myself, not outside in the planes of the living, or had the chance to actually try." I admitted.

My friends have done an excellent job of protecting me as I used my tactical knowledge along with the mystical powers to the best of my capabilities to hold our ground. Inside the half-way world I have never sported an injury, ever. The only time I did was during the final battle where I was hurt, and Eztli-tenoch emerged from the broken seal as my blood gave him freedom. Happy to be rid of the pit, with the last of my powers disappearing deep inside me, I didn't even attempt to heal myself through that power afterwards when we were out of the pit.

I have obtained several descriptions and feed-backs on how it felt when being healed from my friends; and they felt 'AWESOOOOOME!', 'What do you think? Injuries all gone of course!', 'Rejuvenated and clear minded', 'As if the Flame within spreads its warmth to all of us', 'Strong and relaxed as the wounds disappear' and 'None of your business mortal! Although it felt… fuzzy, like sheep wool'.

Salea just quirked her lips in amusement when she read my mind. Oh, now I really miss all my friends.

With amusement laced in her voice she said, "It's a different principle. You heal other people by inserting your Psi energy into their body to achieve healing. But you cannot infuse your own Psi energy into yourself as it is already within you and will make no difference. You will have to take Psi energy from someone or something else, and apply it to your wounds. You will have to pull yourself and someone else into the half-way world, take some Psi energy, and heal yourself with it."

Zelemir cuts in seriously, "But beware, untrained people who are not like mages or priests will most likely yield only a small amount of Psi energy. It is there to maintain the normal bodily function and is linked tightly to the life force. If extracted forcefully, might cause pain to them and to the extreme may cause death, if you pull too much Psi energy from them that the life force has to replace what you are drawing from. In the half-way world extracting life essence will be an easy feat."

I shivered at the consequences of my actions. Remembering how exhausted I felt when I over used my energy inside the half way world, it suddenly makes a lot of sense…. Wait… so if I could draw the energy and life force… and if it is possible to convert energy to life, life to energy…

"I… I think I understand." I said monotonously. My eyes briefly being replaced by golden light, and the golden glow of my whole body intensified for a short moment. The numerous different ways I could apply this new found knowledge swam inside my head.

"Wait! I thought it was impossible for our own energy to heal ourselves, how is it possible!?" Salea exclaimed in surprise, being able to see my intentions clearly with her mind.

"It's different. The wounds are where the life force leak out. I didn't close the wounds, I merely prolonged the time it will take the wounds to kill me by converting Psi energy into life force." I replied monotonously.

Zelemir gave me a nod and sent me back into my body as I held the new found knowledge within myself.

* * *

But boy was I surprised when I should have seen this coming from miles away.

The pain that racked my body was harsh and immediate. My body jolted and gasped out of instincts, only to bring more pain to myself for moving so suddenly.

"She's still alive! Quickly, get a healer!" I heard someone exclaim somewhere accompanied by light footsteps that grew fainter and fainter, but with my mind clouded with pain I couldn't think clearly.

"AZRA!" I heard someone shout. It took a few moments for my mind to register it being Markos who shouted my name. I heard the heavy stampede of boots, the familiar clinking and jingling of heavy armor that Markos always wears with 'the purple skirt thingy' I always liked to tease him for, accompanied by heavy panting of a man approaching me.

"Azra!" The next thing I knew, Markos was already by my side. I tried to move my hands to reach out to him as I looked at Markos's expression. I imagined seeing the most panicked look Markos I could muster from my imagination being plastered on his face when I was at the '**other side'**, but that was not what I see now.

His handsome face was a torrent of emotion. Worry being the most prominent one. Next up was Anger and fear, followed closely by Sadness. Along with other countless emotions I couldn't name with my current state of mind numbed by pain. Seeing my weak and trembling hand trying to reach out to him, he immediately grabbed it. I didn't expect to feel the warm touch of his firm and calloused hands instead of the gloved sensation I have somehow familiarized myself with.

Seeing him like this, I tried to muster a smile to re-assure my friend. It took a lot of effort and I bet it looked extremely weak and strained. But it seems my plan to comfort my friend spectacularly back fired on me as the always calm and collected Markos Kashantir began to shiver all over and his eyes shimmering with tears threatening to be spilled when he saw my smile.

Only now did I realize that he was kneeling by my side.

"Hi…" I said weakly. I didn't know how but Markos's shiver just became stronger and his grip on my hands tightened. "Ow… stop, my hand…" I objected weakly. He widened his eyes for a moment as if startled, and the force of his grip slacked slightly. I decided to do what I needed to do right then and closed my eyes for a brief moment.

Markos gasped as he saw my eyes reopen; only to be filled with golden light, a familiar scenario seen by whoever pays attention to me, Azra, when they engage a battle in the pit. The color of the world around us changed and dimmed slightly. The air and scene rippled for a brief moment before everything became still, too deadly still. The crowd that surrounded us was frozen, as if time itself was frozen; which was exactly what I did, I stopped time for everyone except Markos and myself.

Now that I think back, I think I have done this 'time stopping' thing before, but I never noticed. Sometimes when I needed time to think over my plans, I found myself the only thing moving around while everything else was frozen. And when I saw enemies coming towards me, they froze briefly when I began charging my powers to perform the Push-back spell Markos has given me tips on.

It was easier for me to speak as the pain is slightly reduced in here. I guess with time being stopped it would stop new pain from generating. "Markos, I need you to do me a favor." But I still said the words quite weakly and only just above a whisper as my strength still felt quite weak.

"Name it!" Markos's voice this time has the heavy tinges of desperateness and worry in them. So I told him my plan.

"I can convert the energy within myself to life force to stop myself from dying too quickly, but I need foreign sources of energy to be able to heal my wounds." Markos looked puzzled for a moment, but quickly reacted by pulling my hand that is still in his grasp to his chest.

"Take mine; take it. Even if it takes everything I have for you to get better!" He almost shouted.

I frowned, not necessarily asking for his energy. I was hoping to ask Markos to fetch whoever that tried to kill me here, while I take their energy to heal myself. And knowing it might be painful, I didn't want to cause pain to my friend, not to mention possible death as he is an untrained person with not much energy inside him. So I shook my head slowly.

"No, I need you to find the person who attacked me as quickly as possible and bring him closer. Time should be frozen right now and whoever that ambushed me shouldn't be too far away, you can easily drag them here." I inhaled a short burst of air slowly in fear of increasing my pain, and continued.

"It's someone with a dark hood and cloak." Markos immediately whipped his head around, and dashed in record time towards a retreating figure far away from where I laid, out of my sight, and brought him closer.

The cloaked figure still frozen by time couldn't to do anything as Markos figuratively dragged it like a ragdoll across the ground, as if to vent off some anger on the person. He harshly pulled the hood and cloak open and it revealed a man under it. Once he placed the hooded figure beside me, with an expression of utter hate and loathing he gave a concise but powerful stomp to the figure lying on the ground's chest. The weight of Markos's body along with his heavy armor and plate coated boots prompted a cracked sound from one of the ribs. Markos had an expression between a cruel smirk and a murderous smile, something I couldn't describe. The corner of his lip turning up and eyes lighting up with cold fire. He raised his foot with even more malicious intent, to stomp again.

His foot connected, this time the cracking sound was much louder, indicating he placed much more force on this attack than the last and probably cracked more ribs than one this time. However, Markos did not seem to be satisfied. His hands snaked towards the hilt of his sheathed sword, and was about to unsheathe it when I stopped him.

"Please Markos, don't. I still need his energy." That made him stop immediately, and he kneeled down beside me, taking my hand again.

"If there is not enough, take mine as well." He said softly. Not bothering to give a verbal response, I shook my head and begun to draw the energy from the body beside me. I concentrated to finding the energy inside him, trying to feel it. And just as Zelemir has said, there was not a lot in people who didn't learn to do anything with it. I then focused on drawing the energy into me, as blue wisps of smoke started to come from the body and enter mine.

It was harder than I imagined, but things went smoothly. I managed to tap into the energy of the mysterious figure and took it into myself and healed my wounds with it. In order to gain access of the energy I had to break through a barrier that separated the physical plane and Psi energy, which took a little bit of extra time with my weakened state, but no trouble.

To my luck, the amount of energy was just enough for me to heal my abdomen and remove any other lasting effect on my body, but isn't enough to restore my fatigue. Remembering that Psi energy is also vital to life, I replaced my own energy for the energy I took from him, and healed the broken ribs along the way. Seeing that I have built up a massive residue of that energy, I didn't feel anything when I did all that. But Markos frowned seeing the all too familiar green healing glow he has both seen and experienced countless times himself, coming from the stranger.

"Why are you healing this bastard?" He sounded outraged, although his volume was controlled. I ignored him and continued to heal the stranger. He was about to object again when I promptly summoned numerous crystals and encased half of the man's body within it, leaving only everything above the chest free from the clutches from the deadly explosive crystal Markos recognize all too well.

I have my kindness, yes. But I doubt anyone would sympathize with this man who tried to kill me anyways. Markos seemed to agree to my method very much and quieted down.

I tried to stand up, wobbling on my feet. Markos immediately shot his arms out to steady me as I leaned into his body. I gave him an apologetic look.

"Thank you. And I'm sorry, I know you meant well when you offered me some of your energy, but extracting it is said to cause a lot of pain. Not to mention if I take just a little too much of it I might kill someone who was never trained to have a good reserve of this energy like the priests or mages. I didn't want to risk hurting a friend." Markos winced from my last sentence and averted his gaze. Somehow I got the feeling that Salea is doing a face-palm in the land of the dead right now.

Did I say something wrong? Markos and I are friends after all… right?

We stood there as I catch my breath, the awkward silence looming over our heads, Markos with his face still turned to the side and gaze downcast. I was about to speak when a tone I have never heard Markos spoke in came rushing into my ears.

"Return us to the living, and get time going again. I want this bastard to pay for what he did to you." Markos's tone was filled with hate and murderous intent from top to bottom, his hands clenching so tightly that his whole body is trembling with fury. It's the first I have ever witnessed Markos to be like this. And it scared me even though I know he is a friend and wouldn't ever try to hurt me. I just hope I am right on that regard…

I slowly detached myself from him and turned towards his face to see his expression.

My blood turned cold as ice was thrust into my veins… Well, Now that I experienced this kind of feeling within my body all too often, I totally understand why Wrenna loathed Eztli-tenoch so.

Again, what I saw did not match my imagination in regards of Markos In general. His face is cold and distorted in silent fury, eyes filled with unspeakable hate and anger. Although he did not necessarily focus his gaze on me, but on the figure incased in crystal instead, I trembled at the spot and started to sympathize the cloaked stranger on the ground, not wanting to imagine what Markos will do when he meant 'pay'.

I reached my hands forward, wanting to do something. But found my arms frozen in mid-air, just inches away from Markos.

Markos closed his eyes, and gently took my hands in his, only to direct my palms to his cheek, leaning into my touch. His face was warm, smooth, and I feel his facial hair that I happily teased him for. I was slightly surprised when he snaked his arms behind my waist and pulled me closer, albeit slowly. With our faces inches apart now, he opened his eyes.

"Azra." Markos's voice was filled with a _something_ that I cannot recognize. It's tender, soft, just above a whisper. But I just can't name that key ingredient that is called _something._ His eyes were the same, blue sapphire orbs filled to the brim with those unidentified emotions I do not understand, making me feel like I am staring into the vast blue sky that always held magic and wonder I could not explain. He held me oh-so-close, and I felt something deep inside stir.

It must be the 'worry'. I can't find any better explanation other than him being worried.

He was silent for a moment as our eyes met like this, but tried to speak as he opened his mouth, only to close it immediately, earning a confused expression from me. He then leaned forward while bending his head around my neck and whispered into my ears.

"Azra, you are too important to me. Please don't scare me to death like that again."

Too important? Too important as a friend? I don't really understand what he is saying to me…

So I just said a hesitant "O… Ok…?" as he let go of me and stepped towards the crystal bound prisoner. I don't know how or why, but I felt slightly disappointed with myself. But what exactly am I disappointed of, and why?

Still facing our captive, he turned his head slightly to the side to let me see only just his nose and cheek. I took the queue and restored the flow of time and sent everyone back to the living world.

I was surprised for the second time of the day when I should have seen this coming from miles away too.

As soon as everything returned to normal, the captive let out an ear splitting scream that lasted for a good long while, startling the onlookers, then became silent as his head drooped from unconsciousness.

Was the pain of energy extraction THAT painful? Or was it that, plus Markos cracking his ribs? Since the flow of time stopped, whatever happened when it stopped has to catch up to it. So even if the extraction has been something like constant excruciating pain, it became instant mind-splitting agony due to space-time continuum demanding the missed time to catch up all at once. Think of it as a dam stopping water that constantly flows down a stream, once you take away the dam, whatever was inside it will come out all at once. Add cracked or possibly broken ribs to the list and you will understand why the man's body decided to drop dead, even though it's still alive, somewhat.

A snapping sound echoed through the deadly silent market. Markos's friends stepped out of the crowd and took a hold of the lying figure on the ground, as Markos gave a curt snap of his fingers to call them forth.

"This man has committed crimes against the Kingdom of Ash and its people. By my right as a Knight to protect who I have sworn allegiance to, me and my men will take him to prison. Do not stop us." Markos's voice boomed with authority. The soldiers who Markos has befriended personally, following his command inside the pit, and continued to give their support to him even after returning to the capitol, took hold of the mysterious figure and lifted him to the air gently; recognizing the crystals and knowing all too well of the destructive capabilities of them.

The men along with Markos marched through the murmuring crowds and towards the castle keep, heading towards the dungeon within the castle. I cringed as I turned around and found the ground to be stained by my blood from my previous injury. Knowing now that blood is almost equivalent to life force, I stopped time, sent myself back into the half-way world, and drained both the blood and life within them into myself. The blood on the ground slowly started to disappear as I continued this procedure. Once the blood disappeared completely I felt my fatigue from the previous accident recede, and sent myself back to the living world letting time go on again.

I was about to run, leaving the animated crowd of people still gaping and pointing at my direction, when another voice cut through the air.

"Move! Make way! Healer Coming through!" the voice was accompanied with a frantic gallop of an approaching horse.

Oh right, someone went to fetch the healer. The now-not-so-injured-patient meeting the Oh-so-irritated Healer will be a great sight to behold. Deciding that going into the half-way world and move somewhere else while I'm there would be a better idea than squeezing through the crowd, I did just that and walked directly 'through' the crowd of people without colliding into anyone as I walked through bodies to make my escape; people who are still in the living world cannot see or touch me in this state.

I walked back to the library through the western side and found my key innocently lying right in front of the door of the library. Deeming it safe to leave the half-way world now as nobody else is around, I crouched down to pick up the key, and pocketed it back to my right sleeve pocket in my robes where I usually keep it. I turned to the front entrance, walking casually back to my home.

I sincerely hope everything will be back to normal tomorrow without having to deal with more attempts on my life.

I slapped my palm onto my forehead.

_Why, Azra, why._ I berated myself.

_Why did you have to jinx it?_

* * *

A/N: To be honest, I really feel unsatisfied with the work I have done here. Something just doesn't seem to fit.

And to clear out some confusion.

**Azra learned "Drain Life", "Drain Energy", "Equilibrium" "Infuse" "Crystal Coffin".**

Drain Life: Drains the life force (HP) of a target and adds the amount to Azra's HP.

Drain Energy: Receive the energy a certain target even if they did not die. Cannot receive energy when said target dies, since you already have it.

Equilibrium: Exchange Life into energy, or energy into life. You can also do this on another person.

Infuse: Infuse energy into someone else. Cannot be cast on yourself.

Crystal Coffin: Traps enemies inside a crystal. Explodes on impact, destroying what ever was inside and nearby.

When I finished writing the part on energy extraction, I did a face palm when I realized they could have just killed the guy, get the energy anyway, and escape somewhere else. But oh well...

Azra has overcome the restrictions and laws of physic as she entered the land of the dead. She is no longer bound by them, and her powers just lets her break them even further. Please try and not question that when you see contradictions x_x.


End file.
